Looking for A backup developer / In case I am "Hit by a bus"

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      • Looking for : A backup developer
      • Reason : In case I am “Hit by a bus”
      • Duties : Be available to step in should I not be available any longer
      • Knowledge : SoftVelocity - CW 11 / Templates / Classes / Topspeed
      •           : CapeSoft     - All products Especially Nettalk - heavy API use

      •           : Noyantis     - Calandar w/ CodeJock

      •           : Boxsoft      - Tagging / Resizing
      • Language : English
      • Timezone : 2 hrs +/- Central Standard time USA
  •                             LOCATION: Remote, may be outside USA
      • Training : System overview and codebase review
      •           : Via Teams or Google Chat

      •           : Approx 48 hrs max (2 hrs, twice weekly, 3 months) 4x4x3=48
      • Rate : $65 / hr
      • Ongoing : Just be available should I be “Hit by a bus”
      • Resume/CV : Please Send brief overview of skills
      • Contact : Kevin Erskine, Software By Ragazzi
      • –
      • Kevin Erskine
1 Like
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I’d throw my hat in, but I think the timeZone might be a killer :slight_smile:

3

You dont say if you want onsite or remote?
If remote, do they still need to be State side?
Is your website geoblocking?

4

…no more so than the bus :joy:

2 Likes
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Yes, remote. In the USA is not required, common overlapping work time zones important.

6

I will be reviewing all CVs I have received and review all by Monday and post if position is filled.

7

Actually I’ll send a CV over, I might learn something from your code. :wink:

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8

Hi Kevin,
I have thought about that scenario - I too am looking for some Clarion 11 + Net Talk backup - I was going to reach out to you but have not got around to it yet.
Ron

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9

Hi Kevin!

Nice to see, that someones are thinking of ‘What if’. To many don’t, and that makes it complicated when something happens.

Best regards

Edvard Korsbæk

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Well, I am 63 yrs old and have had this client for over 13 yrs. I don’t have any plans of going anywhere, but you never know what life will throw at you. LOLz

11

A slight variation that I believe applies to more Clarion folks than just me:

      • Looking for : An experienced developer
      • Reason : Would like to retire
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Seems hard to be a backup developer unless getting some time to do development on the code, then Code Review with the lead developer (you). Time to exercise their knowledge.

After the initial “Training : System overview and codebase review” a way to learn more is to review code changes you made over the last week with the trainee. You’'ll have to explain the part of the system you are working on, as well as the reason for the changes, etc. It shows your coding style and dev process. They see the system in small chunks. Its also good to review your own changes. I’ve been doing this for 6 years.

I tend to use WinMerge for compare. They added a feature to “Ignore Numbers” that I turn on when looking at Window/Report changes so AT() moves are ignored removing a lot of clutter. Just the real changes show, like new controls.

2 Likes
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I would recommend treating this like a knowledge transfer, just like you’d do if you were selling your company and preparing for due diligence.

If you are not already using source control, and you are not familiar with git, I would recommend that whomever you choose is already familiar with git.

If you use app files, I would recommend that both of you own licenses to @Rick_UpperPark 's addon and use it, so that your app files can be properly version controlled.

If your new developer can help you get this all into git, it would go a long way toward helping them get familiar with your apps, and give you peace of mind if they get hit by a truck first.

In addition to your application repositories, put your entire Clarion folder, along with the 3rd party addons, in its own source control repository, so you can be apples to apples. Make sure you satisfy your 3rd party licensing requirements.

Once it’s all in git, it will be easier to convey the changes that have transpired, as time goes on.

FWIW

3 Likes
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LOLz - Dream on, you Hippie! – LOLz

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When I ran the UKCUG one of the perks was I worked for some of the companies that attended on a contract basis.
Coolblue - One of the owners Laurence became the UK small business advisor under David Cameron, he used to race TVR’s in GT2 series, then did a deal with Panoz. I was in their Leeds office when their new Panoz race car was flown over from the US and delivered so we had a quick look. That also gives you an idea of the time I was working for them - Did some contract work for them and it had a bonus for early completion, which was quite nice.

Keyhouse, Dublin, upgraded one of their prominent customers apps from tps to MS SQL and legacy to ABC. I wrote an app to do that conversion work to avoid human repetition mistakes.

Causeway. Manages some of the largest construction projects in the world, including at the time 2008, the largest construction project in the world Aldar’s al-raha beach. I wrote some templates to make identifying the part of the program that needed changes, quicker as in a second to identify because the person I worked with knew nothing of the code, they just showed me what window needed changes.

A software company in the Channel Islands, managing payroll for 80% of the people paid out of the CI so island shop workers to city traders who periodically flew to London but generally worked remotely somewhere in the world. That also moved money around the different banking systems that exist across the planet because talented traders come from all corners of the globe. Also managed their investment platform software.

Everyone had a different way of working so being able to adapt is key and develop new tools when needed to keep the speed up and try not to get burnt out with the workload.

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Any chance this conversion program is available? CW11 Legacy to CW11 ABC

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Its not for sale as it needs tuning to every app and how they want the code written out in ABC/OOP format, ie how much do they want to utilise from the extra abc functionality.

Do you want anomolies looked for, like searching for windows that have no window resizing stategy and other things that might be missed in the odd procedure?

Until I see the app(s) I wont even know how much my app can do because some apps are virtually freeform and ignore the cw/legacy template chain embed structure.

One app I worked on, who had had some topspeed people work on it and others, was supposedly ABC, but one contractor in the past preferred controlling the files direct so would ignore the ABC framework, wrote a really nice function that could open/close files just by passing the filename to it, did its own error checking etc and when ever their code was executed it messed up the ABC filemanager. Now I dont know when that code was added, ie before the cw to abc conversion or after, but it still remained and it was never dealt with so it started causing its own problems later on.

In this case the company didnt appear to have any technical oversight so didnt know what the code was doing that was being written for them over the years by different contractors.

Some people like to load stuff up locally into Q’s and arrays to live fast and dangerous depending on their error handling in place, others dont, they just read from data sources and work with the shipping templates unless they have bought in extras like Cowboys or CHT to use a different template framework.

But if its a fairly std cw template app, Im sure I can do something which would be expeditious.

So if you have an app you want converted, I can provide a fixed price/fixed deadline for you that works for both of us.

Pm me if you want to discuss it further.

[Had to reboot phone as it was playing up and stopped me from editing this post]

1 Like
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Good to know! I use WinMerge too.

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Thank you for the response/background. I do not think this would work because of all the inhouse templates and data location restrictions. I do not think you could even compile the original, let alone the new ABC versions to check conversion success/failure.

I inherited this app 13yrs ago and all the new apps i have written for the company are ABC, just the flagship is Legacy. I have tried a few times on my own, but the “abnormalities” are many. - LOLz

Thanks again for your response. I was excited when I saw what you had done and wanted to reach out. - Thanks again.

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I did some work on ABC and Legacy mixed in the same Solution of APPs. There were two ways that I think the best would be that they share one ABC based Data DLL with the files versus it can be done with 2 Data DLLs. I.e. you could have new flagship work in ABC.